Kurdistan’s Weekly Brief January 31

Iran

At least five Kurdish border porters were killed after being caught in an avalanche in Sardasht province in Iran. The heavy snow covered the area for the past week. Activists accused the regime of a lack of adequate response and aid to the trapped Kurdish workers.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq Minister of Interior Karim Sinjari released a statement calling upon the international community to help the KRG with the humanitarian catastrophe developing for civilians fleeing Mosul, specifically the displaced individuals’ lack of proper shelter and medical care. The KRG statement further stated that the “(KRG) is struggling to absorb and care for tens of thousands of Mosul residents fleeing the ongoing operations to liberate the city from ISIS terrorists, in addition to the 1.8 million people who had previously fled.”

A bomb hit a bus carrying off-duty oil and gas police northwest of Sargaran District northwest of Kirkuk. Also, this week Kirkuk police detained a few members of the terrorist organization ISIS who were hiding among displaced families. Recently Kirkuk city has been receiving an average of 200 people fleeing ISIS from Haweja district.

Syria

Following the Astana peace talks and its exclusion of the Syrian Kurds, a delegation from the Northern Autonomous Administration visited Moscow and held a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. In a statement, the Northern Syria Autonomous Administration said that “Russian officials supported us in our point that it is not right to make decisions about Syria with only a few perspectives.” Russia invited the delegation to explain the outcomes and provided a potential post-war roadmap for Syria arrived at from the negotiations, which involved Russia, Iran, the Syrian regime, Turkey, and various armed Islamist groups across Syria. The statement also said that “in order to implement a solution with all the political groups and the opposition, we have called on the participants to come together with those parties who were excluded from talks on Syria.”

As a part of the Raqqa liberation operation, “Wrath of the Euphrates,” the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) foiled an ISIS attack in an attempt to reclaim villages west of the city. The SDF were able to seize trucks and ammunition from ISIS. The ammunition included rifle weapons, such as AK-47s, and anti-tank RPGs.

Turkey

Three days after his release from a previous detainment, Ayhan Bilgen, deputy and spokesperson for the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), was again arrested by the government of Turkey. HDP deputy Meral Danish Beshtash was also arrested yesterday in Diyarbakir. Beshtash tweeted that “democracy is struggling.” Additionally, the police detained two HDP lawmakers from Van. Meanwhile, HDP deputy Idris Baluken was finally released after his imprisonment on November 4, 2016. After going to court, Baluken was cleared of charges of “membership in an armed terrorist organization,” a charge prosecutors were seeking to sentence him for with an 18-year imprisonment. The Central Executive Committee of the HDP described the arrests as a referendum campaign to “intimidate our MPs with such unlawful detentions.” Both Co-Chairs of the HDP and 10 other lawmakers remain in jail.

Turkish police are investigating employees who protested the November 7th arrest of Van metropolitan municipality Co-mayor Bakir Kaya. Tens of government employees have been charged under anti-demonstration laws, a charge that, under Turkey’s current laws, can result in imprisonment.